Index to carillons and chimesby Meeks & Watson

The modern American foundry of Meeks, Watson & Company
(sometimes informally called Meeks & Watson)
has provided bells for various carillons and chimes in North America.
See the bottom of this page for contact information
and notes on the history of this bellfoundry and carillon builder.

For an explanation of what this index contains (and does NOT contain),
and of the additional details on each entry, see the
Bellfoundry Indexes Advice.

Richard M. "Rick" Watson became acquainted with the carillon as a teenager,
and has made it his life's work.
He studied the carillon while attending the University of Wisconsin at Madison,
and became a Carillonneur Member of the GCNA.
He was carillonneur of Samford University (Birmingham, AL) for more than five years
before joining the Verdin Company (Cincinnati, OH) in 1973 as founding director
of their Cast Bell Carillon & Chime Division.
During his tenure in that position, Verdin built all parts of carillons
(which they had not previously done), using Rick's designs.

In 1991, Rick and another Verdin employee, William "Bill" Meeks,
left the company to start their own enterprise.
For the first few years, they were heavily dependent on subcontracts from Verdin
for the design of carillons that Verdin would build (with Petit & Fritsen bells),
as well as for the design and construction of playing and practice keyboards
for those carillons.
But they have long since been independent of Verdin, as the above listing of
carillon and chime work shows.

The company was located in Batavia OH for a few years, and moved to its present
location in January 1994.
Besides casting and tuning bells for carillons and chimes, the company designs,
produces and maintains everything from single church bells to complete carillons.
A very rare expertise which they have is the tuning of old American-made bells,
especially those which make up chimes.